1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to transmitting digital images in a low bandwidth or variable bandwidth environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, full motion video creation and distribution, as well as video games, have been confined to networks and devices with reliable high bandwidth capabilities. Streaming media can have large storage requirements, thereby making such use in portable devices with smaller memories difficult. Further, the large size of the streaming media clips may be beyond the capability of the operating bandwidth of contemporary wireless communications technology. Wireless communication video conferencing and complex video game operations may thus be unachievable due to the high bandwidth requirements needed to generate, encode, combine, decode and distribute images in essentially real-time.
An avatar is a computerized graphical manifestation of a three dimensional character in an electronic system. Avatars serve as visual representations of an entity that other users can interact with on a network. As used in video games, a participant is represented to his or her counterpart in the form of a previously created and stored avatar image. There is an opportunity to use avatars in low or variable bandwidth environments to provide visual representations of participants in a communication network, such as during a video conference call or community video game.